Physical ports are often used to establish network connections that facilitate the flow of traffic within a computer network. For example, a network may include a network connection between a physical port of a router and another physical port of another router. In this example, the network connection may facilitate the flow of traffic between the router and the other router.
Unfortunately, this network connection may have certain shortcomings and/or limitations when the physical ports are set to operate in different communication modes. For example, the physical port may be set to operate in a 10 Gigabit per second (Gbps) mode, and the other physical port may be set to operate in a 40 Gbps mode. In the event that the 40 Gbps port experiences a fault condition, the physical coding sublayer (PCS) of the 40 Gbps port may transmit a fault notification to the PCS of the 10 Gbps port. However, the PCS of the 10 Gbps port may be unable to recognize and/or decode the fault notification due to the different architectures, protocols, and/or rates of the 10 and 40 Gbps modes. As a result, the network connection may appear active despite the fault condition experienced by the 40 Gbps port, thereby potentially leading to a black hole scenario in which the 10 Gbps port drops traffic directed to the network connection.
The instant disclosure, therefore, identifies and addresses a need for systems, methods, and apparatuses for detecting fault conditions experienced by remote physical ports.